Elections were never meant to be held in November, 2019

Dec 25, 2019 Letters

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DEAR EDITOR,

The APNU/AFC Coalition will go down in the annals not only for its adamant refusal to resign and call an election within three months as stipulated by the Constitution having been defeated by a vote of no confidence on December 21st 2018 but its continuous violations and blatant disregard for the Constitution. On that unforgettable day 34 members of the National Assembly agreed that the Coalition has, since it acceded Office had not only plunged the Guyanese Nation into an economic crisis but has been the architect of the most blatant forms of corruption and squandermania only paralleled during the 28 years of PNC dictatorship. The Nation has also witnessed a most zealous and unique form of political witch hunting of Opposition members and supporters as never seen before. Thousands lost their jobs because they are perceived as PPP supporters!
Undoubtedly, the Coalition was confident that the Opposition’s no confidence motion would have failed since they had the majority of the House, but little did they realized then that the suffering of the people has a way of igniting the conscience of some. It came as a massive tsunami which drowned their confidence and allowed the reality of their gross misdeeds to come to the fore when they lost the NCM. It was unbelievable and in their shell-shocked state of mind they woefully accepted the outcome. However, the very next day they came to realization that a lot was at stake and they needed time to do damage control.
They needed time to regain the trust and confidence of their supporters because they rapidly eroded the economic gains made from 1992 to 2015 under the PPP/C Government. The Coalition not only gave themselves humongous salary increases but they embarked on a journey to enrich not only themselves but families and friends. Soon after taking office, old and feeble PNC members filled every strata of government, adding to the bureaucracy and incompetence whilst sucking the blood of the overburdened taxpayers! Their support base has dwindled rapidly and their Coalition partner, the AFC has been completely decimated.
Therefore, to delay the Elections which was supposed to be held on 22nd March, 2019, the Coalition went from the High Court to the Appeal Court and finally to the CCJ. Months went by and by June 18th the CCJ ruled that the NCM was validly passed thus reactivating the process and making it imperative that elections be held by September 18th 2019. According to Granger in his address to the Nation, his Government accepts the CCJ’s ruling and will abide by it and the Constitution. Then he introduced his next delaying tactic, he claimed that, ‘we cannot proceed on the current list of voters. It is outdated and corrupted. It may hold as many as 200,000 incorrect entries…It is democratic and imperative that house-to house registration be completed’. He was emphatic that based on advice from the then Chairman of GECOM, Justice Patterson, that GECOM will be ready to hold Elections by November, 2019.
We have now seen that by proclamation General and Regional Elections will be held on March 2nd, 2020, 4 months after the Patterson advisory. Furthermore, Granger’s claim of ‘200,000 incorrect entries’ is totally false and ridiculous but the intent all along was to delay the elections and on that score he was successful since just a week before the illegally appointed Chairman demitted office he set the HtH registration by signing the order for it to commence on July 20th 2019 and end on October 20th. This is a clear indication that the November timeline Patterson had advised Granger on was just a ruse. How can he advise November when he signed the HtH order which will catapult elections in 2020? The work plan of GECOM has 290 days to complete all activities and that is a conservative estimate according to Commissioner Sase Gunraj. Elections were never meant to be held in November, 2019.
It is now conclusive that after wasting approximately $3 billion, it is now found that out of the 370,000 persons registered during the HtH registration only approximately 16,000 are new registrants, that there were massive duplications and from this it is estimated that only about 10,000 will actually be placed on the Revised Preliminary List since approximately 6,000 entries could not be verified. This has now exposed the fact that Granger’s ‘200,000 incorrect entries’ was just another chapter in the PNC’s book of devious stratagem to attempt to rig the impending elections.
Will the PNC ever give up their devious ways and allow this nation a free and fair election? The answer will be known soon!

Yours sincerely,
Haseef Yusuf

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